Teresa- Meltdown March

sometimes when Coky says no he means it

Well, we have continued to chip away at our weak areas this month  mainly in our showjumping. Whilst the schooling at home seems to have improved  the shows have still  been disappointing.
I am shouldering some of the blame.
The new bit is continuing to be a hit I certainly have more control on the landing side of fences although we are still getting the annoying four faults and equally annoying a couple of eliminations.  grrrr
I had such a bad show on one occasion I seriously contemplated giving it all up, but the following day with a clearer mindset I decided I wont quit but changes have to made for us to improve.
We can do it !! we have done it !! and we will do it again !!!
I’ve analyzed recent photos and videos and I’ve noticed a change in my riding I’m riding almost waiting for stops and not releasing Corkys head and neck to stretch over fences which could account for the faults.
Cue another lesson with Abbi Griffin we decided it would be a good idea for Abbi to ride Corky for part of the lesson for her to identify his/ my problems.
Abbi felt he wasn’t confident ( that’s two of us -Corky) and needed some help with that.

He jumped brilliantly in the lesson and even jumped a water tray (Nemesis fence) numerous times with only one refusal.
We finished the lesson with me riding, its amazing how confident you can feel when your instructor is telling you what to do, we jumped the watertray too.
We decided Abbi would jump him at the next show to help Corkys confidence so off we went to eland lodge they have lots of bright, brand new bold colored fences this I thought would be a real test.
In the first class Abbi and Corky got 8 faults, Corky I could see was more foreword but still a little spooky. He jumped well but clattered the planks and got too close to another so got 8 faults.
In the second class he was going much better but alas the planks got him another 4 faults.
So now we have identified a few areas to improve on and we will be working on these whilst hopefully going some way to restoring my confidence and in turn helping corkys.
I’m planning on jumping some small courses to help us both until we have both got our mojo back
And I have a chiropractor booked for Corky mid April just to rule out anything physical.

March was also our last exercise from Tim and I would encourage any rider of any ability to have a go at this exercise its both fun to do and very useful.
Corky and I enjoyed doing this one lots of woo hoo’s.

Having a go at Tim’s exercise

Tim’s exercise consisted of five fences (small uprights) built on the centre line of the arena ( grid style) spaced out one stride apart ( 8 human strides 4 for the horses stride with 2 to land and another 2 to take off) for this exercise we were asked to jump fence 1 on an acute angle across the fence and then 45 degree angle back to fence 3. The challenge set for me was to jump fences 1 + 3+ 5. Corky really took to this exercise which made it all a lot easier to do. He worked out he needed to raise his front legs higher and faster as one leg was always closer to the jump.
I found the key was to try to keep a consistent trot or canter throughout and making a nice balanced turn to each fence and I certainly felt the new bit was helping with this.
We finished the exercise by jumping all five fences as a grid this was something I knew corky would find difficult as he’s always trying to put two strides into a one striding double. ( yes I need to push more for one)

On the first attempt he put two strides between each one and it wasn’t pretty but it was very funny ( he didn’t have a knock down either !!)
the second attempt I pushed and we did it perfect with one stride between but of course I had to do it again because a. it was fun and b. Just in case it was pure luck.
So go on have a go.
I will be repeating this one at home albeit with 3 fences due to space so jumping 1+3 etc
I’m sure it will help improve our turns and ‘dog legs’ next time were out competing.

Until next month Teresa